Welcome to episode 17 of design, curious podcast.
Today, I am talking about books, I guess, I am a bit of a
bookworm. I do love learning, I love
reading ever since probably the fourth grade, but in the last
five to eight years, I've really turned my attention towards self
improvement books and business Improvement books.
And so, I've brought to you today books that I thought It
would be helpful for those that discovering the career of
interior design as well as those starting out their businesses.
So, I will have a list for you. I'm going to kind of talk
through them in the episode, but of course, they will all be
listed out in the show notes. So you don't have to worry about
writing them all down. So you can go to the shonas and
get links to all of these books and put them on your wish list
for the holidays. I think these would be a great
idea. I have a lot of books on my own
wish list. I love it when people I mean
bucks or even audible credits, so that I can listen to those in
the car or whatever I might be doing and we are still in the
midst of the holidays. I went to remind you about the
promos. We have going with my design
Mentor, so if you sign up this month, you can get a 30-minute
bonus call with meat, so I can answer all of your questions.
You might have about the career or launching your own business,
another way. That you can get a bonus is by
purchasing the business starter kit within the program.
Or if you have a friend that you refer to the program and they
sign up and you can also get a 30-minute call with me.
So if you want to take advantage of that head over to our Ward
design.com to look into the program.
All right, so let's get into these books today.
You're now listening to design, curious a place where you
creative one are here to learn about what it really is.
Like, to be an interior designer and I'm your host and Mentor
Rebecca, Ward, if you're worried about how to succeed in a
creative career, if you're ready to learn your next steps to
become an Interior Designer. And if you want the satisfaction
of doing something you love every day, you are in the right
place. Grab a coffee, a notebook.
And let's dig into today's episode.
All right. So this book list that I have
is, by all means, not all of the books that I have read nor is it
every single one that I recommend, but it's just ones
that come to top of mind for me right now, as I'm thinking about
the ones I want to recommend to you to put on your wish list for
people to give you maybe as presents or give you some
audible credits. To purchase these books.
Listening to a lot of these books, audibly has been a great
way to get through. All the books that I want to
listen to because I can listen to them while I'm walking doing
chores and things like that, when I don't always have the
time to sit down and actually, physically read a book, it's
really helpful to have that audible option.
All right, so the first category I want to touch on is actually
for the skills of interior design.
For those of you who are thinking about the career in
interior design or maybe haven't gone to design school yet.
These are some books that are actually used as Text books.
A few of them I was assigned as textbooks in my college classes
and they may still be used may not.
I I don't know, I haven't checked the curriculums lately,
but I did find them helpful and I'm sure a lot of this
information could be found online if you're just Googling
for it, but it is nice to have a reference book at the tip of
your fingers. Sometimes just having a book is
better than the internet, so I don't know, maybe I'm old school
that way but I do like having the These in my library, and
especially in early days, I referenced it a lot when I was
unsure, about spatial dimensions, and interior design
particulars. So one of the first ones I would
recommend is called professional practice for interior designers
by Christine piotrowski and it has been updated many times.
So I think it's made me in the sixth or seventh edition.
So you'll want to get the most recent that she is updated for
you. In in there, she talks about all
the different ways that you can run your practice as an interior
designer. And I think she has a sample
contract in their licensed from asid and maybe also from iida, I
don't recall, but I did reference this, a lot as I was
setting up my own practice. Of course, I didn't have all of
the resources that I have access to now, through podcast, and
internet. It and all those things.
So I know I am standing like a dinosaur, but I do think that
there is some value in this book so do check it out.
The other one is human dimensions and Interior, Space
by Julia's Panero. So this is great because it
shows you and you know, I'm very visual.
So I like to see the graphs and charts of human Dimensions.
This book also is helpful for when you're studying for the
NCI, DQ and need to know, you know how wide the doors need to
be and things like that. All those little details.
These are just the standards that go into that.
That is doable for people. Feel like, passing behind a
chair to get, like a walkway behind a chair.
At a dining table between the wall or fears, another chair
behind you. I think it also touches and
Commercial spaces as well, so that can be useful just knowing
human Dimensions. Another one that I was
recommended to, by my professor in school was called Time, Saver
standards for interior design and space planning.
By a couple people, I think day, Chiara or dichiara.
Not sure how to pronounce that. But that is a giant heavy heavy
book, but this definitely has all of residential and
Commercial standards. So I'll be like the ADA
compliance standards. How large all the spaces have to
be for certain amount of people? Very useful?
Like I said, it's like a textbook.
So if you haven't gone to design school, this could be definitely
something you're going. On a reference and then interior
construction and detailing for designers and Architects by
ballast and that is another one. That kind of shows you more of
the construction detailing which was definitely and still is one
of my weaker points knowing how things are put together.
So those four books, I would say are really textbooks.
They are kind of pricey but I would say they're worth to have
in your library. If you have not gone to design
school, Cool. Or if you're exploring the
career itself. Okay, so the next area of books,
I would recommend is for business development, so this
would be books for that I've read either to help me with
developing my business practices or understanding marketing,
branding and things like that. Alright, so the first one I
would recommend is e-myth Revisited by Michael Gerber.
It is a great book that explores the difference between The
creator person and the actual CEO business Runner.
A lot of people will start a business because they love doing
the craft. So you're an interior designer,
you love doing the interior design, but you probably don't
know a lot about running a business.
And so this book explores about how you need to spend time
working on your business as well as in your business, most people
just want to work in the business.
So this book is highly recommended by many people and I
recommend it as well. So you can start there.
I would recommend all of Mike michalowicz has books.
I've read them all but the three top ones that I would recommend
our profit first, get different, and the Pumpkin plan.
I love listening to those ones on Audible as well, and he's so
animated. He just makes it really fun to
listen to, and very inspiring. So check those out, then I'll
move on to start with yhi mentioned before with Simon
sinek. So it's kind of the Aviation why
you're doing things? Why other people do things
really interesting topic? I thought because it really
plays into marketing messaging branding which is what you need
to do for your business. And speaking of ranting I'd say
building a story brand by Donald Miller is a must-read as well
when you're developing your website and messaging.
A lot of great tips in that and then likewise this is marketing
by Seth Godin. Another really good perspective
on Marketing, what people pay attention to even if you don't
think that marketing, is your Forte or anything like that.
I've found these marketing and branding books, to be really
useful when I'm thinking about the messaging that and the
experience that I'm building for my clients and then I would
definitely include in there. Kimberly selden's business of
design volumes 1, through 3 and in those, it lays out her whole
system which you can also explore of course in her.
Program coaching program, but these books go through it as
well. They talk about the lifestyle of
a designer creating the life that you want, while you're
owning your own business and then kind of the practices and
then volume 3 is talking about a flat fees versus hourly fees.
Okay? So the next area will can talk
about is personal growth. I love personal growth books.
And one of those is atomic habits.
Must read by James Clerk. We're really inspiring kind of a
kick in the pants on getting things done and just kind of how
we the nature of people and how to make it so that we are
achieving our goals because it's at needs to be intentional and
not accidental. I'd also say, essentialism Greg.
McAllen is the author of that and that was another one.
That was really like. Wow, you've got to fine-tune and
focus. Your goals are and make sure
that you're achieving in life, what you're wanting.
So yeah, everyone should read essentialism.
I thought that was really eye-opening and the one I
finished recently that I really enjoyed was called boundary Boss
by Terry Cole. I thought this was really
effective for personal relationships, but also with
relationships with clients setting boundaries with clients
is so important. So I would recommend boundary
boss for that and then the road back to you by Ian Crocker.
Ron and season stable is a book on the Enneagram and just
discovering personality types and understanding them.
All I think is beneficial for understanding your clients and
learning how to communicate with them.
Well, so that's the road back to you.
And then, lastly, in this category, I have the big leap by
gay Hendricks and this book talks about our upper limit
problem where we kind of set limits on what we can achieve
without. And that we need to kind of come
to terms with the things that we are the limbs that were placing
on ourselves so that we can reach beyond that and actually
achieve the goals that we want. Okay, so the next category I
have is money mindset and my favorite books in this category
are you are a badass at making money by Jensen chair?
Oh, I've read the physical copy of.
Also, listen to the audiobook, both are really fun.
And then the other one is, we should all be millionaires by
Rachel. Rogers and some crossover
mindset things but also really inspiring and I found really
beneficial for my business. So those are the categories that
I have recommended for you and I'm just honest, I know what the
things that I have on my list to read, or that just I'm starting
right now. I just started business Made
Simple by Donald Miller and I think that's going to be really
good. Actually, I would probably
recommend it to my group next year.
We A book club within my design mentors that have books in there
that I kind of recommend. And if anyone wants to talk
about it quarterly we can you know there's places to discuss
it in there but I think business is Made Simple is going to be
really good for either people who want to start their own
business or those who are working for someone else.
It's how to really maximize yourself in the workplace and
what else is on. My list is grit the power of
passion and perseverance by Angela Duckworth have her Heard
good things about that. So I have put that on my list
and then I also have went at work and succeed at life.
Five principles to free yourself from the cult of overworked by
Michael Hyatt and Megan height Miller.
So that's what I've got on my list coming up.
I think I might revisit this may be the end of next year and kind
of let you know, the books that I did touch on this year and new
ones that I have coming up. But if you're anything like me I
just really love. Love the self improvement, work
Improvement, business Improvement type of bucks.
I do read some fun for leisure but actually I really just have
fun reading these books. Hopefully that's helpful to you
and that you can put some of those on your wish list and
people can help support you in a way of getting these books for
you. All right, so what do you guys
think I'm a nerd or what? I don't know, maybe have to be
to be an entrepreneur but you a growth mindset is something that
is one of my core values. It's very important to me the
hope of learning and growing and just being able to transform and
change. It's just so inspiring to me and
I love when other people Embrace that too.
So if you have actually any book recommendations that you'd like
me to consider, please do Send them my way because I'm always
looking for a good book to try out and I would love to add that
to my list to read this year. So like I said, all of those
books are listed in the show notes, you can find that our war
design.com for / podcast, feel free to email me podcast at our
war, design.com are connect. With me on Instagram at our word
design. I'd love to see you in my
messages and answer any questions that you might have.
And I hope Guys are enjoying your holidays as we're
approaching the end of the year. I have another great interview
for next week, with someone who really was critical in helping
me achieve. One of my goals for that was for
this year. So we'll see you next week.
Creative one to discover. If interior design is the career
for you and until then stay creative, thanks for listening.
If you loved this episode, please leave a rating and a
review. This helps me reach other
curious creative. like you, if you have a topic request or
would like to contact me, simply head over to my website, our
Ward design.com or email me at podcast at our war design.com,
like you, if you have a topic request or would like to contact
me, simply head over to my website, our Ward design.com or
email me at podcast at our war design.com,